Many women are hesitant to wear bathing suits or summer shoe styles which require the wearer to remain bare-legged because they are ashamed of the appearance of their legs. Such women have a desire to improve the appearance of their legs so they can appear in public in a bathing suit, swim, wear sandals and abbreviated summer clothing with open shoes, and the like. The person may have visible varicose veins, unsightly scars, dimples or fatty deposits which render their legs unattractive and discourage them from appearing in a swimsuit. It is well known that wearing hosiery garments such as stockings or pantyhose improve the appearance of a woman's leg, and even women with attractive legs, including movie and television stars and dancers, wear hosiery garments such as pantyhose to make their legs appear sleek and attractive.
However, conventional hosiery garments, such as pantyhose and tights, include a hip portion, a pair of leg portions and a pair of foot portions which entirely enclose the feet. In normal use, these prior art garments are subject to increased wear at the toes where they may snag, run or tear. Reinforcement has the disadvantage of producing noticeable seams or yarns of different densities which detract from the appearance of the foot portion of such garments. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,711,866 to Vorberg which shows a panty hose garment having a reinforced heel and reinforced toes.
Conventional pantyhose, such as disclosed by Vorberg, are designed to be worn with traditional shoes which cover all or a substantial portion of the wearer's foot. Prior art pantyhose are not suitable for use when the wearer is swimming for a number of reasons. Pantyhose tend to stretch and bag when wet, hampering foot movement of a swimmer, as well as becoming uncomfortable and unsightly. Further, women who must wear pantyhose in order to be presentable in a bathing suit need a garment which is as unobtrusive and unobvious as possible, which remains in place during activity such as swimming, and which remains taut even when wet. A conventional pantyhose garment such as that taught by Vorberg is highly visible because of the reinforced areas of the foot portion, and does not provide the freedom of foot movement required during swimming as the foot portion tends to fill with water, stretch and hamper activity, and does not retain the required tension once wet to maintain the beneficial effect of wearing pantyhose. Sheer foot portions, while somewhat less noticeable, still suffer from the stretching problems when wet, tend to run easily, and as they encase the toes, make it apparent that the wearer has hosiery on under her bathing suit, and thus are also wholly unsuitable as a solution to this long standing problem. And in both cases, conventional foot portions of pantyhose are not suited for wear with sandals, particularly those having a thong arrangement as is common with beach and other summer footwear.
In addition, conventional pantyhose are difficult to pull up and down when they are wet. The pantyhose garment taught by Vorberg has a closed crotch design which necessitates their partial removal should the wearers need to relieve themselves during the period in which they are wearing the product. The present invention provides the wearer with an open crotch design which solves the problem of struggling with wet tights, as there is no need to remove them for purposes of elimination. This invention differs from that taught by Gollestani, and Southwell, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,802,469 and 4,637,678 who use a flap or series of flaps for closure. The present invention has a round opening which is surrounded by a double knit band. When stretched on the body it forms a narrow slit which can be digitally manipulated when necessary.
Other prior art patents disclose arrangements where the wearer's toes and heels are exposed by providing one or more straps that extend downwardly from the ankles and under the bottom of the wearer's feet. Examples of such stirrup arrangements are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 856,066 to Lum; 1,435,047 to Blum; 3,670,339 to Cooper et al.; and 4,156,294 to Horn. These arrangements are disadvantageous for the present purpose because means are not provided for preventing the foot portion of the garment from being displaced rearwardly while the wearer is swimming, and the strap can detract from the appearance of the garment because it cannot be easily covered by thong shoes or open toe sandals. Thus, while the popular stirrup style exercise tights are suitable for use when worn with full shoes, or when worn in instances where the wearer will not be engaging in any water sport, and/or are not concerned with wearing a sheer garment with an unobtrusive foot portion, they are wholly unsuitable for use with a bathing suit.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,452,302 to Loren and 2,932,829 to Corbin disclose stockings that have one stall for the large toe and a separate stall for the four smaller toes. While such garments are marginally suitable for wear with sandals having a thong which fits between the large toe and the adjacent toe, they do not provide an unobtrusive foot portion, are not suitable for use while swimming, and do not retain a taut fit when wet. U.S. Pat. No. 1,798,201 to Hedges discloses a foot garment arrangement in which separate stalls are provided for the first, third and fifth toes only. These prior art garments are disadvantageous because they include toe portions which are not unobtrusive, are subject to increased wear from a functional standpoint, and are wholly objectionable from an aesthetic standpoint.
Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 3,605,122 to Meyers shows a stocking in which the toes are exposed, but the foot portion is subject to rearward displacement when worn.
Payne U.S. Pat. No. 2,322,252 teaches an integral two piece shoe having a linear or "sock" which conforms to the shape of the exterior portion of the shoe. The liner, which is waterproof and cushioned, exposes the toes of the wearer and provides a bight at the lower end of the wearer's foot so as to fit between the first and second toes and position the liner within the shoe. Because of the shoe component mating with the sock, the provision of cushioning under the ball of the foot, and the general objectives of Payne, it does not solve nor suggest a solution to the longstanding problem of providing a comfortable pantyhose garment which can be worn while swimming. A single thong between the first and second toes puts extreme pressure on the foot while swimming or exercising, causing pain between the toes and on the bottom of the foot.
The present invention, which departs from the teaching of Payne, provides a double thong which is worn between the first and second toes, and between the fourth and fifth toes. This arrangement significantly reduces the stress on the foot because the tension is spread over the entire toe portion. The current design also differs from Hearn, U.S. Pat. No. 1,999,929, whose open toe design provides straps encasing the lower portion of the foot and going between every toe. This design is not only unsightly for use with swimwear, but it also fails to take into account the structural differences between the toes, ie, the fact that a slight "webbing" exists between the third and fourth toes. Forcing all of the toes into stalls of the same height may cause discomfort to the wearer.
The open toe-open crotch design is also beneficial when using this garment for exercise. People who are tennis players, or who are dancers for example, and who wish to wear a pantyhose garment for aesthetic reasons can wear this product because the toes are not constricted as they would be if wearing conventional panty hose. Current styles in dance footwear feature open toe and thong toe slippers. Conventional stirrup pantyhose or tights are aesthetically unpleasing when worn with this type of shoe. Also the open crotch design provides ventilation and helps prevent the build up of perspiration and odors which occur during strenuous exercise.
A variation of this design could be useful for post surgical patients who have undergone plastic surgery for liposuction or removal of veins, or other types of surgery which require the patient to constantly wear a supportive panty for a specified period of time. This invention differs from Gollestani, U.S. Pat. No. 4,802,469, in that claims are made for a therapeutic body suit which does not have leg portions, and features an open crotch design which consists of a removable flap.
Thus the present garment provides a solution to the longstanding need for an unobtrusive, comfortable hosiery garment which can be worn by women with less than perfect legs while swimming or engaging in exercise, sports or dance, as well as by post surgery patients.